This Must Be the Place

Daniel goes to Sussex to talk to Todd. Waiting outside the secondary school where Todd teaches, Daniel remembers his first sexual encounter with Nicola. He approached her after one of her lectures and tried to ask her to dinner, and she insisted that he tell her exactly what he wanted. He told her that he wanted to take her to dinner and to bed. They had sex in the bathroom and then went to dinner. After he went back to New York, he couldn’t return to England, so he called Nicola. When she didn’t answer, he wrote her a letter asking her to join him at Berkeley. She never wrote back. He believes that marrying his first wife was a rebound from Nicola, who is her polar opposite.

He sees Todd come out of the school and follows him, trying to figure out how to approach him. When Todd goes into a restaurant, Daniel follows him in. They meet awkwardly, with Todd spilling his food onto the floor, and they sit down together. Todd is angry that Daniel never came back and never contacted him. He tells Daniel that Nicola didn’t die that day in the woods but several months later from heart damage due to her eating disorder. Todd seems guilty about something, and Daniel realizes that Todd never gave Nicola the letter Daniel that sent her. The men exchange blows outside the restaurant, and Todd runs away to catch a bus.

On a set in India in 1996, Claudette gets her hair and makeup done before going to perform. She has been experiencing headaches and vision disturbances, which doctors say are due to stress. She leaves her trailer, followed by an assistant, who reports her every move. It occurs to Claudette that she desperately needs to see Ari and rushes back to the trailer, but he’s just fallen asleep. She sits with him for a few minutes until Timou comes in and asks if she can go to set. She shakes her head and asks for half an hour. He agrees. She looks at him, feeling, as she did when Ari was born, that he is somehow two men simultaneously. When the staff leave, she imagines running away with Ari—having a bag packed, wearing the nanny’s hat to conceal her identity, and dumping the car in a lake. However, she stays and walks to the set.

A couple years later, on a trip with Timou’s family, she has the bag packed and the plan in place. Early one morning, she and Ari leave the yacht, taking the rowboat, and leave for good.

This chapter takes place in Brooklyn in 1944. Daniel’s mother, Teresa Sullivan neé Hanrahan, meets Johnny Demarco while helping Johnny’s nephew, who cut himself on a subway grate. They have an instant connection, but both are engaged—Johnny to Lucia and Teresa to Paul Sullivan, Daniel’s father. Teresa marries Paul, has four children, and helps him run the family store, but she never forgets Johnny.

They run into each other a few times in their lives, the last time on a ferry to Manhattan when Teresa takes four-year-old Daniel into the city. They sit together, and Johnny asks her to promise to always let him know where she is so that if things ever change, they can find each other. When she dies, her last thoughts are of Johnny, hoping that he’ll be told of her death.

Daniel returns home to Donegal in 2010, dropped at the first gate by the cab, which refuses to navigate the long, gated driveway. The house is dark when he arrives. Claudette, the children, the dog, and the car are all gone. Daniel worries that Claudette has disappeared on him like she disappeared on Timou. However, he believes that this was only a disagreement and just needs to find Claudette and explain.

He remembers the first time he saw the house, mildewed and in disrepair. Claudette and Ari had lived there for 18 months but had only made the living room and makeshift kitchen livable. He remembers meeting them at the crossroads, following the directions from the bed and breakfast owner. Ari and Claudette were sitting on the roof of their car, watching a buzzard and a hawk in the distance. Ari jumped into Daniel’s arms, and they shared hot chocolate in the car.

Claudette asked Daniel to help Ari overcome his stammer, but Daniel demurred, doubting that he could help. He confessed that he recognized Claudette and promised to keep her secret.

In the house in Donegal, Daniel looks around and realizes where Claudette and the children have gone.

Maeve, in 2003, is in China in a hotel room with her newly adopted daughter, Zhilan. Zhilan stands in her crib and screams while Maeve tries to comfort her. Zhilan doesn’t want to be picked up, and Maeve panics. She gives her a bottle, but Zhilan fights her, and Maeve bursts into tears, fearing that she’s failed as a mother. She calls Lucas, who has stayed in England for the phone call, which has prevented the last two adoption attempts from China. He tells her to go to Claudette’s room. Maeve goes, and Claudette calmly helps her, seeing that Zhilan is too warm from being dressed in so many layers by the orphanage. Maeve feels terrible that she didn’t notice, but Claudette calms them both, handing Maeve the calmer Zhilan and the bottle.